Tyler Seguin's scoring drought ends at 12 games with goal against Sharks

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Dallas Stars center Tyler Seguin (91) passes the puck against the Los Angeles Kings during the second period at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Tuesday, October 23, 2018. (Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News)

Seguin scored during Thursday's 4-3 win over San Jose, snapping a 12-game goalless streak and scoring for the first time in his previous 57 shots on goal. Seguin's second-period goal came after a bad turnover from Brenden Dillon and he spun the puck past Sharks goaltender Martin Jones.

"I'm a hockey player, ooh," Seguin joked after the game. "Look at that, eh. It's great. I can breathe again."

Seguin's goalless streak tied his career-long set in Jan. 2014. Although he was held out of the back of the net, Seguin was still playing well. He was generating chances and winning faceoffs, playing on the penalty kill and receiving top-line matchups defensively.

But, in the end, Seguin is getting paid to score goals, and Thursday's was the fourth in the season's first 16 games.

"Not scoring, you kind of learn a little bit about yourself," Seguin said. "I haven't had a slump like that in a while. I heard two 11-game [streaks] before in the past, but nothing in a while. I don't think anything in a while. It was a bit of a mental grind at times. You just want to keep doing good at faceoffs, PK, all that stuff. Obviously happy to get a result tonight and happy with a win."

Stars fear defenseman John Klingberg could miss at least three weeks after suffering injury vs. San Jose

PK back on track: After killing 23 straight penalties at one point, the Stars penalty kill entered Thursday having allowed goals in each of the last four games. They went a perfect 3-for-3 against the Sharks, including a big four-minute kill after Radek Faksa was issued a double-minor for high-sticking.

"That's the bounceback we wanted from the last game or so, two games," Seguin said. "It was nice to see the PKers get rewarded tonight, especially that four-minuter with a power play like that. A lot of good things."

The Stars penalty kill is now at 81.6 percent, and ranks 12th in the NHL.

Polak's jump in minutes: Defenseman Roman Polak played 23:09 on Thursday night, a season-high and the most he's played since March 16, 2017. Polak, signed as a seventh-defensemen in the offseason, has taken on more and more responsibility as defensemen continue to get hurt.

He's jumped into the Stars' top-four and has played alongside Miro Heiskanen for the last four games. Polak is a key member of the penalty kill and brings a physical element of the game that the rest of the defensive corps is lacking.

"He's probably a microcosm of what we're looking at," Stars coach Jim Montgomery said. "He scrapes, he battles, he claws, he kicks and that's what we're doing as a team right now."

Polak recorded two hits and blocked two shots against the Sharks.

"I always had this role on the team," Polak said. "If it's here or St. Louis or Toronto, I just fill up the spot for everybody when they need me. So, I'm kind of used to it."